Thursday, June 16, 2016

Siri Opens to Third Party Developers

Saw this annoncement from WWDC. A near requirement after Echo moved in this space. Depends too on precisely what 'open source' means here. How narrowly is the API defined? Will the connection include some of the later developments from Viv? How are needed services defined? How is learning included and defined? Lots of questions remain.

Apple finally opens Siri to third-party developersAs widely expected, Apple is lavishing TLC on its voice assistant, Siri, at this year’s WWDC. The company has just announced it will be letting developers bake Siri’s voice functionality into their apps — so users will be able to tap into third-party services just by saying ‘Hey Siri…’.While there are some Siri third-party integrations already, such as Siri’s ability to perform look ups via Yelp, for example, or search for content on Twitter, the new capabilities greatly expand the potential for iOS users to call upon Siri, once developers start plugging their services directly into the voice interface. .... " Some details indicated, from O'Reilly:" ... Apple has joined Amazon in offering an intelligent voice interface as a service. Siri—until now inaccessible to developers—will allow third-party apps to offer their services inside the Siri interface through an SDK called SiriKit. ... "